Users may create and publish videos online, which others users may watch. Users may select which video to watch, for example, by selecting a thumbnail of the video. A thumbnail is a reduced-size version of a digital image. Thumbnails may be implemented, for example, on web pages and/or in applications (e.g., web browser, mobile application) as smaller copies of an original digital image. Poor selection of a thumbnail can affect video click rate and consumption rate, which may be factors in generating revenue through the video.
For example, a video may be of a celebrity interview and an image of the face of the celebrity may be used as the thumbnail for the video. Some thumbnails may not be the best representation of the content of the video. For example, instead of using an image of the face of the celebrity as the thumbnail for the video, an image of the reporter who is interviewing the celebrity may be used. Videos that have a thumbnail of the reporter may not be selected as much as videos that have a thumbnail of the celebrity. In another example, a video may be of a high school marching band playing the latest hit song by a popular rock band. The video may be using an image of the rock band as a thumbnail, which many users may be selecting. Upon selection, users may realize that the video is not a performance of the rock band, and users may immediately stop watching the video. Although the high school marching band video may have a high click rate using the rock band image as a thumbnail, the high school marching band video has a low consumption rate.
Another example of a common problem today with thumbnail images misrepresenting the content of the video may be that an image may indicate that a video is a music video, when in fact the video is the image accompanied by a song playing while the image is shown. In another example, a user may select an image that implies that there is more action, which relates to the image, to be seen from the video. For example, an image of a football receiver catching a ball can imply that the video immediately shows the catch when the video is selected. The video may not immediately show the football receiver catching the ball and a user may have to navigate through the content of the video to locate the content of the football receiver catching the ball.
In another example, a user may select an image of a famous retired basketball player with an expectation that much of the video content includes the famous retired basketball player. The image may be misleading in that the famous retired basketball player is briefly included in the video content and the video content largely includes clips of current basketball players. In another example, a user may select an image of a flood, but the video content is mostly a news reporter talking about the weather with a brief showing of the flood. In another example, the image for the thumbnail may not be included the video content at all. The opposite scenarios of these examples may also occur. For example, a famous retired basketball player may appear prominently in a video, but the thumbnail may not include the famous retired basketball player. Poor representation of the video content in a thumbnail image may lead to missed opportunities for users to find the videos which the users may want.